Reducing Disparities and Promoting Better Outcomes in Black Maternal Health
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Care delivery teams and scientific experts at UI Health are committed to designing and implementing practices that address the journey of Black mothers through their pregnancy and afterwords. UI Health remains focused on delivering high-quality care and training that promotes better and more equitable maternal health outcomes for Black women and families.
Earlier this year the university received an $11 million, six-year grant from the National Institutes of Health dedicated to maternal health research to reduce health inequities in maternal morbidity and mortality for Black women. This award is led by our Department of Medicine Head, Dr. Rachel Caskey and Dr. Elizabeth Glassgow.
Named the Maternal Health Research Center of Excellence, the goal is to conduct new scientific studies; train and develop a diverse, interdisciplinary research workforce; and partner with communities to promote maternal health equity. When the center was announced this past July, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, U.S. Representative Lauren Underwood, UIC researchers, UI Health clinicians and patients joined together to emphasize the urgent need to address the ongoing maternal health crisis.
“The establishment of the Maternal Health Research Center of Excellence by the National Institutes of Health is an important commitment to ensuring that every woman, regardless of background, has access to the highest standards of maternal care,” said UIC Chancellor Marie Lynn Miranda. “Together we have the expertise, the dedication, and the shared vision to create a brighter, healthier future for mothers and their families.”
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Additionally, the UI Health Melanated Group Midwifery Care is another initiative that is supported by $10 million in grant funds, established to improve pregnancy outcomes for Black women through care teams of Black midwives, nurses, and doulas led by Karie Stewart, Kylea Liese and Stacie Geller. To counter health disparities experienced by these patients, the group is participating in a first-of-its-kind research study providing hundreds of Black mothers with a team of midwives, social workers, and doulas from the prenatal stage up to a year after giving birth.
The study seeks to reduce health disparities for women of color at our Mile Square Health Center locations by promoting the main drivers of healthy pregnancies, including increased prenatal care, and addressing implicit bias and structural racism. Key to these efforts are nurse-midwives who assist in eliminating hierarchical barriers while advocating for shared decision-making among the patient and provider. Members of the study have said they are already seeing results in bringing more moms safely back home.
The TeamBirth program, a collaboration between Endeavor Health and UI Health, is implementing a novel birthing model in the hopes that better communication and shared decision-making can reduce disparities that negatively affect the experience of Black women giving birth and reduce the rates of cesarean sections.
Relatedly, the I’m Speaking study, will be implemented with help from the Illinois Perinatal Quality Collaborative, or ILPQC. The study is funded with $7 million from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) and is led by collaborative faculty from the College of Medicine’s Department of Family and Community medicine, and Endeavor Health OB-GYN physicians. The goal of the study is to evaluate an make improvements to the TeamBirth program.
In total, our approach to maternal mental health incorporates basic scientists and other specialists throughout the care lifespan. As we better understand the stressors and differences that occur in the lived experiences of black mothers – we are also gaining deeper insight into how the lives of these patients in particular affects cardiovascular health and Alzheimer’s Disease among many other projects.